Open-Source Good, Closed-Source Bad

Found this article <http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGBUBJ5QK9E.html>
(following a link from Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram newsletter) about
hundreds of people charged with drink-driving having their cases thrown out
of court because the manufacturer of the breathalyzer machines used will
not disclose their source code or any other details about how the machines
work.

As Schneier says <http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0510.html>:

This is the right decision. Throughout history, the government has had
to make the choice: prosecute, or keep your investigative methods
secret. They couldn't have both. If they wanted to keep their methods
secret, they had to give up on prosecution.

People have the right to confront their accuser. People have a right to
examine the evidence against them, and to contet the validity of that
evidence. As more and more evidence is collected by software, this means
open-source equipment.

We are all safer because of this decision. (And its implications are
huge. Think of voting systems, for one.)

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On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 12:23:23 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> People have the right to confront their accuser. People have a right to
> examine the evidence against them, and to contet the validity of that
> evidence. As more and more evidence is collected by software, this means
> open-source equipment.

This is fundemental to the working of democracy. The accused must have the
evidence present against her in away that the public at large can
understand.

This is yet another front whose fire power has opened up against closed
source programmes.

How society chooses to use technology is really the important question.
For technology is neutral.

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